Dealing with legislation in Cabinet Government

CabinetHome Affairs (HA)

Parliamentary Business & Legislation

(PBL)

National SecurityCouncil (NSC)

Economic Affairs (EA)

Banking EuropeanAffairs (EAC)

Economic & Domestic Secretariat (EDS)

incl. Legislation Sec(HA, EA, PBL,PEX, SJ. Banking and Scotland)

European & Global Issues Secretariat

(EGIS)(European Affairs)

National SecuritySecretariat

(NSS)(NSC sub-cttees)

Civil Contingencies Secretariat

(CSS)(mainly COBR)

Cabinet Secretariat

Quad

Public Expenditure

(PEX)

Scotland Social Justice

(SJ)

Over view of the normal process for agreeing the legislative programme

April •Request for bids for primary legislation in the next session•Departments are given around six weeks and asked to complete a bidding template

June/July •Ministers pitch bids to PBL Committee •PBL Committee assesses bids and submits a slimmed down list to Cabinet for approval•Leader of the House of Commons writes to Ministers granting drafting authority

July-December •Departments begin instructing Parliamentary Counsel•Departments consult on policies in each Bill

January •PBL Committee, Quad and the Cabinet revise provisional legislative programme

May/June •Cabinet agrees final content of the legislative programme•The Queen outlines the legislative programme at the State Opening of Parliament

Before we introduce a Bill we need to know that:

The legislation is necessary and a priority

Devolution issues can be resolved

Policy clearance can be obtained

The legislation can be drafted and introduced on time

Constraints on the legislative programme Too much or too little?

About 10-20 Bills each session, most need to be delivered within a session.

Out of about 150 sitting days in each session, only half are available for Government legislation.

Always pressure to spend more time on each Bill.

Developing the policy before introduction - when to feed in your views?

Informal meetings and discussions with departments

Green Paper: sets out an initial proposal for a Bill

White Paper: sets out detailed proposals

Draft legislation: published for pre-legislative scrutiny

Just because there has been no formal consultation document does not mean that no consultation has taken place.

After a Bill has been introduced

Bills can be amended, but we only have a limited amount of time before this can happen

Tell departments ASAP if you have an issues with any of the drafting in a Bill.

Departments often publish draft regulations during the passage of a Bill.

Speak up if you support a measure in a Bill!